Copenhagen parking permits to rise as city targets congestion

Parking will become more expensive for Copenhagen residents next year as the city seeks to reduce congestion, DR reports. The increase is part of Copenhagen Municipality’s 2027 budget, presented on Thursday.

Anders Brandborg, a pensioner who has lived in the Christianshavn neighbourhood for 14 years, bought his resident parking permit in 2019 for 10 kroner. He owns a petrol car and says he often struggles to find a parking space.

“I cannot park if I come home in the evening. There are no vacant spaces in the parking zone, and there are no parking garages in Christianshavn either,” Brandborg said.

The higher permit prices are intended to regulate growing congestion. Line Barfod, Copenhagen’s mayor for climate, environment and technology, said the city needed to create more space for people who require a car in their daily lives.

Brandborg said it was unfair to raise the cost when parking was already so difficult.

“It is a huge price increase. I had no idea the price would go crazy when I bought my car,” he said.

He said he regularly cycled around Copenhagen but found that difficult as well, citing the number of rental bicycles and runners and what he described as potentially dangerous conditions.

He is backed by FDM, the motorists’ interest organisation. Chief consultant Dennis Lange said people should be allowed to need a car even if they happened to live in a city, as many people relied on cars to make everyday life work.

The price increases will also affect electric car owners. Their annual cost will rise by 670 kroner.

Lange said the increase could frustrate electric car owners after years of efforts to encourage people to choose electric cars over petrol and other fuel-powered vehicles.

Barfod said the city had always intended for electric car owners eventually to pay the same parking rates as other motorists. A previous reduction in the electric car rate had been introduced to encourage people to switch, she said, adding that the rate would now rise until all cars were charged the same.

Politicians have also agreed to reserve up to 200 on-street parking spaces in Copenhagen’s inner districts for residents with parking permits.